In the May issue’s Hot Dish column, I wrote about the stunning renovation of Kitchen 41—it’s not often a restaurant does a soup-to-nuts gut job, and rarer when the place is only approaching its second anniversary. Cheers to the owners, a delightful husband-and wife-team, giving their classy cuisine an equally classy backdrop. Out went the neon plastic seats, and in came leather banquettes, curtained French doors, and lots of rustic wood for a chic and sleek (yet cozy!) look.
The owners may have moved to the United States from Italy, but their cuisine is largely gluten-free (bread is delivered tableside only if requested and pastas are pretty much the only other dish with the maligned wheat protein). Take this salad, for example: radicchio, endive and speck are topped with dollop of mascarpone in a baked Parmesan basket, a filling mix of contrasting textures and tastes.
Nearly all entrees are cooked using sous-vide, a warm water bath that locks in nutrients—a good thing because everything’s made fresh in-house using organic and sustainably harvested products. The pastas, like this pappardelle porcini accented with edible flowers and shaved truffles, are about to earn the USDA-organic certification—the first for a restaurant in town.
